The Gift of Acceptance
by Calie1
Summary: Just as much as she needed to be able to accept it, he needed to see her do it. One Shot. Spoilers for Season 9.


Notes: Spoilers for the rest of Season 9. As usual, I included pictures for this fic. So you need to go to my livejournal to see them.

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"How do you manage to wear something so innocent and I still want to rip it off your body?" Oliver asked as he entered into the room again, free of any type of alien business. What he hadn't planned on was Chloe lounging in bed, clad in only a simple cotton white slip. There was a certain innocent about it, with it's lace and ruffles until you noticed the cleavage and the rather short hem line.

Chloe grinned up at him from the bed, knocking her bent knees together like a pleased child as she popped another chocolate into her mouth. "Maybe that's the allure, the innocence."

He snorted as he reached the edge of the bed. Leaning over it he propped both hands on either side of her and pressed a kiss to her lips.

"Lose the shirt." She smiled against his lips. He rolled his eyes and stood up, stripping the shirt from his body, revealing his perfectly sculpted chest, arms, and shoulders. Her eyes flittered over the scaring wound on his chest though. No longer did she feel a pang of sadness and anger when she saw it. In time hopefully it would heal and if Oliver so wished, she was sure he could afford to get it fixed. But it didn't bother her, he was perfect to her the way he was. "Clark gone I hope?"

"Finally." He crawled onto the bed, stretching out next to her on his side and watching in amusement as she bit into another chocolate. "How many of those have you had?" A slow, knowing smile came over her face. "Chloe..."

"Enough." As he reached over her she tried to grab the bag, but he beat her to it.

Opening the bag of dark chocolate he gaped. "Chloe!"

"It's mine anyway!" She exclaimed and snatched it back. "My gift remember?"

"I know that." He said and pinched her stomach through her white slip. When she batted at his hand he settled for sliding his palm over her stomach and resting it on the opposite hip. "But I had it flown in especially from Belgian and you are eating them like they are tic tacs." She only smiled at his response, not bothering to hide her amusement.

"Oh fine," she responded with a roll of her eyes and rolled away from him, setting the bag of chocolates on the floor and retrieving her glass of red wine and taking a sip of it before rolling onto her back again. "I've probably gained five pounds anyway thanks to you. You won't like me when I'm fat at the end of the week."

"Don't worry," he began with a smirk as he slid a hand down her body until it reached the hem of her slip, "I'm sure we can work it off."

Chloe laughed as he slid his hand up the inside of her thigh. Batting his hand away she turned into him, propping her head up so that it was level with his. His hand moved up her thigh again, this time coming to rest on her bare ass. Their lips met in a lazy kiss that soon had her on her back, him hovering over half her body, leg sliding between hers, parting them. Just as she arched her body against him, rubbing herself against his thigh, he pulled away.

"Wait," he said quickly and pushed off the bed.

Chloe propped her arms up behind her, digging her elbows into the mattress and stared at him with her mouth gaping open. "You did NOT bring me to this private beach house without a soul for miles only to tell me to wait."

Oliver kneeled in front of his suitcase and dug to the bottom. "I brought you here because I wanted no interruptions for an entire week. That included cousins, aliens, demons, meteor infected, or whatever the world can come up with."

At the sound of his annoyed tone she smiled at his back. "You know Clark can go anywhere."

"Don't remind me. I'll learn from my mistakes. Next time I'm surrounding the place with green kryptonite." Finally, his hand closed on one long box. He stretched his fingers out and found the other one still situated beneath it. Grasping both in his hand he pulled them out.

"That might work," she teased. Slowly, her grin faded as she spotted the green and gold ribbon. The boxes were the next the she noticed, long and black. "Ollie..."

"I don't see you running off into the palm trees this time." Instead of lunging away in fear she rolled her eyes and sat up.

"I told you nothing big."

"You didn't think renting half an island was nothing big? Or the Belgian chocolates flown over night, or the five thousand dollar bottle of wine." She gapped up at him as he lowered himself back onto the bed, situating himself on his side so that he was facing her, the boxes nestled into the sheets between them.

"Five thousand! Oliver, come on...this is getting ridiculous. You can't just spend-."

"Don't make me put chocolate in your mouth Chloe." He leaned into her, pressing a kiss to her lips and wrapping a hand around her neck. When he pulled away slightly, he looked seriously into her green eyes. "I swear I won't make a habit of it. But this is the first real moment we've had to ourselves since..."

There was an intense look in his eyes as he trailed off and she only nodded, not needing him to continue, she had been there after all. Some things she wished to forget. Even so, those things had brought some unexpected revelations. If she had to be specific, it had been her changing relationship to Oliver. One that had gone from from a fun, friends with benefits, no strings attached relationship to caring, needing, and the fear of losing one another. It felt like something familiar, something she had felt before and had hoped not to feel again. But as she laid there with him, being showered with his affections, his eyes looking at her with such deep emotions she found she wasn't scared.

Instead of making him finish his words she leaned into him, pressing a kiss to his lips and smiling gently at him. "I know." Pulling away she looked down at the boxes between them, her resolved strengthened by his regard for her. "This better be a set of silver wear."

"It's symbolic." Grabbing the box wrapped in the gold bow he handed it over. "This one first."

Feeling to much like a kid on Christmas she didn't bother hiding the grin on her face as she pulled the ribbon. It slid away with no problem and then fell away. Next she lifted the lid. There was some anticipation as she did so, yet when she saw the silver nestled into the velvet molding she scrunched her brow together and then looked up at him, eyebrow cocked. "I was joking."

At the look on her face he smiled. "Like I said symbolic. You wouldn't open the last one I gave you."

"And I did now..." She said slowly, realizing his point. It was part of the change in their relationship. Along with admitting their real feelings for one another, certain aspects of their relationship had changed also. It now encompassed the normal things...dates, flowers, phone calls in the morning and night, public outings, and an actual commitment. Of course their new relationship also encompassed the abnormal things also, which included ducking paparazzi, being obligated to attend a Luthorcorp dinner with him and getting the third degree when he couldn't find her. Chloe suspected men and woman alike got worried when their significant other disappeared for a couple of hours. The difference between them and normal people though was when they disappeared it could be life or death.

"Right." He took the box from her and glanced down at it. "Besides, at least this one isn't form the gift shop. I even had a C put on it." When he looked up at her she was breaking out into a huge grin.

"You are ridiculous." She laughed and leaned into him, pressing a kiss to his forehead.

"You'll thank me now that you have a new fancy spoon for your coffee." Turning his head up to her he met her lips with his own. Seconds passed, their lips moving together in perfect tandem, tongues caressing one another. Then he pulled away with one final kiss.

"You are killing me here." Chloe groaned, already feeling the heat pooling between her legs.

"One more and I swear we'll work off those five pounds you were worried about." She shoved his shoulder gently and he grabbed her hand in his own, pressing a kiss to the top of it. "One more."

With a smile she looked down at the black box, slightly wider then the first. It was black velvet, wrapped in a green bow, trimmed in gold. With a smirk she looked up at him. "Is it a matching fork?"

"Don't be smart." But he grinned when she smiled and then looked back down to pull the edges of the ribbon. Out of all the gifts he'd lavished up on her recently this one worried him the most. Dinner, bouquets of flowers once a week, the best coffee money could buy, new computer equipment, expensive wine, and half an island at their disposal...none of those gifts concerned him, made him fear her reaction. As he said to her earlier, the two boxes were symbolic. She had been so reluctant to cross that line months ago at that bed and breakfast, especially once she had spotted the small box on the bed. So to him, the second one was the test. The spoon, had been a joke, symbolic still, because she had willingly opened it, receiving the strange gift he would have given her before. As she opened the second, he was all seriousness, glancing up at her and down again, waiting for her to open the box and almost fearing her reaction.

Something told her whatever she found in the box wasn't a spoon, a fork, or even a spork. Maybe it was a feeling, but she knew it would be something more. As she opened the box she gasped, inhaling sharply. Hesitantly, she lowered her hand from the top of the box and ran it along the string of diamonds and emeralds which formed a V in the middle. "Oh god." Looking up at him she gaped and then glanced down again. With a shake of her head she tried to tell herself that it crossed the line. They'd been involved only about six months, which included the past mont that they had settled on more serious terms. Regardless of how long they had known each other, it was still to much. Chloe knew very little about jewelry, but considering Oliver's lavishness as of late she could only imagine. "Ollie, I can't-."

He shook his head as she began to speak the words he had feared. "Stop." Pulling the box from her hands he sat up and gently pulled the necklace free. "Turn around." She just stared up at him, green eyes wide. "Come on Chloe." Slowly she turned on the bed, revealing her back to him. After undoing the clasp he reached around her, settling the necklace over her neck. "Hair." She moved slowly, grasping the ends of her hair and pulling them off her neck. He did the clasp carefully and then looked down to the strand of diamonds and emeralds that lay over her collar bone and met in a V over her chest. "I know what you want to say and I know what you're thinking." He pressed a kiss to her exposed shoulder and rested his lips against the warm skin, looking down on the jewelry adorning her chest. "But five months ago this is what you were expecting, and you wouldn't open it and I know you wouldn't have accepted it. But I want to give it to you now, and for my own sake, accept it this time. Remember?" He lifted his eyes to her face to find her looking down, eyes still trained on the necklace. "We said things would be different?"

"I know, it's just a lot," she whispered. He pressed another kiss to her neck and then she felt his hands sliding around her, brushing her ribs and cupping her breasts. His touch was gentle, but even as his thumbs slid over her nipples she dropped her head back, sighing at the feel of his fingers through her thin slip. In seconds she was stripped bare, physically and mentally, laying beneath him as he kissed down her body slowly, caressed her slit with his tongue, mouth working over her clit. After she came he was on top of her again, settled between her legs and taking her, riding her with deep, long thrusts. She clutched at him, wrapping her arms tightly around his neck, needing to have him close, to hold her as she fell. He wrapped an arm around around her hips, lifting them from the bed and thrusting deeper, pushing with such force that her that her body shook as he filled her, tensed at the feel of him so deep inside her. It was right there that she knew she loved him. It felt like falling, like losing herself in something that there was no escape from. So she held tighter, her legs squeezing around his waist, her arms trying to find better purchase on his body. With each thrust her mouth fell open in pleasure. His long slow strokes became shorter until he barely moved out of her, only grinding against her, stretching her, filling her to the point that her womb protested slightly. But she couldn't let go, regardless of the physical effects his length would have on her later. She needing the proximity, him deep inside her, and she suspected my the way he held on to her, Ed his face in her neck, and strained to be inside of her that he needed it to.

Then suddenly the tension exploded, her body releasing for him. She cried out beneath him, tears escaping the corners of her eyes at the realization of what just happened.

With one final thrust he collapsed on to her, unable to move and barely able to hold his weight off of her. With a shaky sigh he lifted himself onto his arms and looked down into her bleary eyes then down at the only thing she still wore, the necklace. With one hand he slid his fingers over the stones and then looked up at her. "Keep it. Please."

This time she just nodded, undone by not just his words, but the plea in his eyes. It was more then just her acceptance of the gift, like he said, it was a step for them, it was symbolic, and just as much as she needed to be able to accept it he needed to see her do it. "It's beautiful," she whispered softly, palming his cheek, "thank you."


End file.
